DOGRA DYNASTY

Rajput clan, or group of clans, that still dominates the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. They form the chief, or mian, portion of Rajputs of the Jammu territory (lying north of Lahore, roughly between the Chenab and Ravi rivers). They are a hardy and martial people who attained prominence in the 19th century. There had long been a small state of Jammu, but after 1780 it became tributary to the Sikhs. One of the princely house, Gulab Singh, distinguished himself in the service of the Sikhs and was made raja of Jammu in 1820, which was the beginning of the Dogra dynasty. He expanded to the north, annexing Ladakh and Baltistan. In the First Sikh War (184546), Singh held aloof and then appeared as a mediator. As a reward, Kashmir (annexed by the Sikhs in 1819) was given to him by the British for a cash payment. This was the origin of what became known as the Kashmir problem. Kashmir itself, apart from a Brahman minority, was Muslim in population, so that a Hindu thus ruled a Muslim majority state. In 1947 Hari Singh, the great-grandson of Gulab Singh, faced with an incursion of Pashtuns from Pakistan, acceded to union with India.